A Bookworm's Bookstore and A Lotus-Obsessed College Student
by Yuu-Pon
Summary: Bookworms are people too. Their goofy smiles are what makes others smile and upon finding a red-head's corner side bookstore, Kanda is fascinated and ends up spending hours there each day, talking to the owner about trivial things.
1. Chapter 1

The laptop that rested on Kanda's lap was hot, it hummed over the music that his room mate was playing. He didn't understand it much, it was some foreign British pop shit that, for some odd reason, the white haired male he shared the room with enjoyed. Kanda, on the other hand, hated it with a passion. His eyes darted out the dirty window and to the sunny sky. They darted back to the three pages of typed research paper he'd managed to write. The hot hum was annoying and he could feel the heat through his jeans. Kanda raked his fingers through his hair in frustration for a moment before saving the progress he'd made and slamming his shitty laptop closed. He hated the contraption. It was old, a goddamn windows XP that couldn't get decent internet connection. Ever. Due to this, he often borrowed Allen's. And after every five minutes, the teenager would poke his head down from the top bunk and ask "Are you done yet, BaKanda?".

The male would say the nickname in such a mocking, teasing, annoying tone that Kanda would actually _prefer_ Allen to call him by his first name. Even if he hated it more than he hated writing, technology and being mistaken as a female. Kanda stood and tugged off his old, stained, black wife beater and pulled on a t-shirt, followed by a university sweatshirt that he'd gotten the first fall, he didn't realize it got so cold so fast in America. He shoved his feet into his boots and walked out after grabbing his wad of money. He needed a drink. He _really really _needed to fuck somebody.

He frowned a bit and walked off campus. The wind was strong, it wiping his tied back hair about as he walked to the center of town. There was never anything new around, but as he walked to the center of town, he found something new. A book store. Now, Kanda wasn't much of a reader, no, he never read. Half the time he bullshitted and spark-noted his projects. But there was something about the place. It was old, the front windows displaying new releases and book related objects. Kanda walked up the front steps and pushed open the heavy, wooden door. The bells above clanked, letting the owner know he was there.

A red headed male popped his head around the book shelves a grin on his face.

"A customer~!" he sang, going to the counter with a tall stack of old books in his arms. He put them down on the counter and grinned at Kanda. "Hiya! You're my first customer, so that means you get…um…a free book for every two ya buy. Special deal. Unless you want some of these, then you can have them each for a buck. They're used so nobody really wants them."

Kanda scowled, but listened to the other. "A book store?" he asked, hating the idea of coming in here more and more.

"Aw…doncha like reading?' Lavi asked, quirking an eyebrow. He wondered why Kanda would even come into the place if he didn't like reading. It was a moronic theory. He tightened the strings that held on his eye patch as he spoke.

"Not really. But I would like to get a few books though." He replied.

"Betcha read Shakespeare and all, right?" Lavi asked, holding up a dusty copy of Hamlet that he had pulled out of the stack of used books.

"Shakespeare? Who the fuck reads that shit?" Kanda asked, making a face at the thought of the typical romance that popped into every educated, high-school graduate. The typical 'Romeo Romeo! Where for art thou, Romeo!" echoed through his mind. He wondered if someone would ever call out for him like that. Though he never read the play, even when it was assigned to him in his senior year, he knew they both died in the end. Kanda wondered if he'd ever even find somebody. That was probably what he wanted most in the world, just someone to joke with and occasionally have rough sex with. But that wasn't the real issue here. The issue was the dorky red-head before him who continued to grin at him like he was something special, even though Kanda, for one, knew that he was nothing more than a dirt poor college student who got in by pure dumb luck. He blinked, a sigh escaping his lips as he did. He wanted to be home now, though he felt sort of safe with the store owner. The man reminded him of a rabbit. The rabbit in that tortoise and hare story where the rabbit fucks around and looses the race. It occurred to Kanda that he never even learned the man's name. There wasn't a name tag on the other's beaten-up sweater, the knitted kind that he assumed his girlfriend made him.

"What's your name?" Kanda asked, taking a book off of the stack of used ones and flipping through the pages. Lavi found the action a bit funny, the male had seemed to calm a bit after a moment. His grin became a soft smile that showed real happiness. Real happiness, for Lavi was never ever brought about by another human. it was typically a musty, dusty book that he found in his grandpa's attic or a porno magazine. He liked the later one much much more than musty, dusty books.

"Lavi." He replied, lazily going about doing a bit of inventory with the books around him. "And yours?"

"Yuu." Kanda said quickly. It occurred to him a split second later that he had given him his _name_ not his surname. "I mean Kanda. My name is Kanda." He corrected.

Lavi chuckled at his distress. "Nice to meet you, Yuu-Chan~." Lavi sang out, his single visible emerald green eye shining.


	2. Chapter 2

It was a perplexing notion, the simple idea of reading made Kanda shudder. But each day he found himself drawn back to the musty shop, two Styrofoam coffee cups in hand. Lavi had said that he loved hot chocolate. So each day, Kanda walked through the snow covered side walks to the building to bring him one. He always made it by hand. He shaved the chocolate into small pieces, smiling to himself as he watched it all melt into the hot milk. For himself it was tea. Some that his mother would send him from back home. Budding tea, the blooming flowers were fun to watch and the result was a sweet tea that he favored to none other. Each were put into a cup and brought to the store, the male sipping at his own as he walked.

He wasn't sure why he bothered hand-making the cocoa, there was a coffee shop beside the bookstore anyways. It was mid-January and as a result, Kanda began wearing the orange scarf Lavi had given him. It had been a blizzard that day, the wind strong and fierce. Lavi insisted he take it, the male wrapping it around Kanda a few times before he was allowed to leave. Kanda didn't take it off until the next morning. It smelt like newly printed books and ink. He reasoned that was because Lavi did all his paperwork with a quill and ink well. It was strange, but the simple action brought a smile to his face, which he immediately covered with the scarf.

Kanda pushed open the door with ease, walking up to Lavi and handing him the foam mug of milk chocolate and marshmallows.

"Am I ever going to get my scarf back?" Lavi asked, tugging on the orange fleece that was wrapped around the other's neck.

"Just take your damn cocoa." He snarled, making a small motion to drop it, forcing Lavi to grab it from him. Lavi smiled and took a sip.

"Are you ever going to tell me where you buy this cocoa, I need more than one cup ya'know?" Lavi asked between sips.

"I make it myself." He said, sipping at his tea. Lavi choked slightly and looked at him strangely. He wiped some of the drink from his lips as they curled into a smirk.

"So you bake? Because this is wonderful. I wonder how your cookies would taste."Lavi said, making a suggestive eye brow movement at the implied joke. Kanda scoffed and smacked the other's forehead.

"Don't be ridiculous." He retorted, crossing his arms. "I don't bake."

Lavi laughed softly and walked around his friend, half checking him out and half doing it to simply annoy the long-haired college student. They had been friends for about a month now. He wondered why Kanda came to the store each day and he didn't even bother buying a book. Or maybe he bought one for school, he couldn't remember. Lavi plopped down on the couch that was placed snugly in the corner of the store. Once everything was cleaned up and out, the rented space was rather large and he maintained a sort of coffee shop book store lay out. Small circular tables were placed in the front and often, high school students would come inside to buy a book and eat their fast food lunch.

"I'm graduating soon." Kanda said, sitting next to Lavi. It had been two years since he graduated and two years of school was all he could handle. An associate degree seemed better than nothing.

"Graduating already?" Lavi asked, quirking an eyebrow at Kanda's statement. Kanda nodded and downed the rest of his luke-warm tea.

"Yeah. Its boring and I'm not getting any younger and I'd rather waste my youth fucking a cute guy or something. I have no goals for life so, why the fuck am I wasting my life doing this shit?" He asked, not expecting an answer from the red-head.

"A cute guy? So you're gay?" Lavi asked, understanding what Kanda meant. Lavi was always smart and with motivation from his grandfather, graduated high school at the age of fourteen. From there, he was made to become a lawyer. Lavi had realized how moronic the plan was and ran away. He came to the small town that held only a university, a K-Mart and a few family businesses. He found the simple town perfect.

"Look at me, do I look straight?" he asked, a small laugh in his voice as he spoke.

Lavi stayed silent for a second. There was no real way to answer that. He could say that the other looked like a gay man, but that might get him hit. He thought that Kanda looked more like a cross-dresser, like a girl trying to be a guy...or maybe vise versa. He wasn't all that sure yet. He then found his mind wandering to the idea of Kanda dressed in cute clothes. He grinned at the idea of the slightly shorter male in a pink dress, maybe some flowers braided into his hair.

"Well, you look very pretty." Lavi replied and Kanda crossed his arms.

"Pretty? I'm not pretty."

"Handsome?"

"Not even close." He replied, frowning slightly at Lavi who's eye brows were in thought as he tried to figure out the word for Kanda. Lavi crossed his arms for a while, thinking as hard as he could for that word. He then grinned and wrapped an arm around Kanda.

"How about my 'boyfriend'." He asked, smiling at Kanda.

"Huh?" He asked, giving him a strange look. Lavi chuckled and pressed his lips to Kanda's.

"You heard me." He said against the other's soft lips.


End file.
